Global Reset

Dear Hollywood,

I’ve noticed your latest crutch for movie plots which has appeared in a number of recent films: Genetic Memory (i.e. offspring or clones share the memory experience of their genetic parents). I’d like to be the first to let you know that the entire idea of Genetic Memory is stupid and isn’t based on any sort of science. Frankly, those of us who are familiar with science are beyond bored of it. If you have any scripts on the burner which use Genetic Memory as a plot device, I’d suggest doing a rewrite.

There could be some other interesting questions on cloning that you could raise besides Genetic Memory. For example, if cloning became commonplace, wouldn’t we be more susceptible to a pandemic disease? Now that’s a legitimate concern.

Note how there used to be a good number of movies about the dangers of radiation and the atomic bomb? Now we laugh at the titles of these films because we recognize the patent ridiculousness of the idea that an atomic bomb test could create a skyscraper-sized spider. In 20 or so years, you are at risk of becoming that guy.

I would even go so far as to say that when you had hackers surfing around a 3d computer interface you were closer to reality than when a clone shares a memory experience of the clonee. Lets just go back to that one; you can make us all scared of the internet again.

Sincerely,

Scott

p.s. - I am available for free consultation (within reasonable time constraints) on any script that you need technical advisement on.

We had a conversation a couple of weekends ago about how you destroyed the beyond excellent tv series Firefly by not watching it. I had hoped that you learned your lesson and you were going to take this second chance you’ve been given. Unfortunately, it seems that on Serenity’s second weekend, more of you decided to see The Gospel than a movie about space cowboys. Are you completely out of your respective minds?!

To help sweeten the pot, Universal has now started offering a 9 minute free preview of the movie so you can better decide if it’s something you’d enjoy. That’s a really generous offer; don’t be ungrateful.

My personal review of the movie is that it is an excellent and fun film. I am too biased to say whether or not you have to be a fan of the show to enjoy the film, but I want to believe anyone can enjoy it. I did have a disagreement or two with the film… For example, that bad thing that happened that most are upset about. Not only was that a “shock” moment, but it’s an excellent example of bad fiction. I don’t go to the movies to see random maladies afflict good people for no good reason. If that’s your kind of thing, you can get plenty of it by watching documentary shows like Trauma: Life in the ER. It actually turns my stomach a little that the scene made it into the final cut. But, the fact that I feel so strongly about that scene, yet I still enjoyed the movie, should be a considered a good sign that the rest of the movie makes up for it in spades.

Now, hurry up and go watch it. If I don’t get my BDT (Big Damn Trilogy), I don’t know how I’ll ever forgive you… But I will most certainly repay you in kind.

Am I Excited About Serenity? by globalreset.

Yes! Yes, I am! So excited, in fact, that I bought a Captain Malcolm Reynolds doll! (I know I am supposed to say action figure, but come on… It’s a doll.) I like having a few dorky desk toys to lighten up my work place. Might as well have a desk toy of my favorite anti-hero.

This is a big weekend for me… The release of Serenity and the celebration of my birth are both on Friday, followed up by my Wedding Anniversary on Sunday.

Now I know some of you did not watch Firefly while it was on Fox, so they cancelled it. I have noone to blame but you for this injustice. Now Paramount has decided to give you a second chance, and if you don’t watch it this time, I will never forgive you. Wikipedia has a lot of information on the original show, which you completely destroyed.

Forget the doomsday prophets and their cries of panic as we approach some alleged day of reckoning with our “natural resources”… Their is a bona fide shortage that must have peaked ages ago: Good Movie Ideas.

Unfortunately, it may be far too late to do anything about it. The steady increase in movie ticket price did not result in an increase in movie quality, as we had hoped… We may have to experience a Movie Apocalypse before we can revive the medium with good art.

Don’t believe that it’s gotten that bad? You must not have heard of Snakes on a Plane. Synopsis: On board a flight over the Pacific Ocean, an assassin, bent on killing a passenger who’s a witness in protective custody, let loose a crate full of deadly snakes. That’s right… It’s called Snakes on a Plane because, well, it’s about snakes… on a plane. As Erik puts it, next we’ll see movie titles like Someone gets stabbed and You just gave up $8.50 to see this?.

As an aside, if you don’t know what the title and the first sentence are referencing, I was alluding to the Peak Oil prophets. They claim that we’ve reached the end of our oil supply and the whole world is going to end because of it. The author of this Peak Oil website got more than just the idea for a ranting single-column layout from TimeCube guy. Besides our memories of the assorted Y2K-disaster theorists, if you need any reason not to waste your time on this disaster-du-jour you can browse the criticisms area of wikipedia.

But Good Movie Ideas… I would be interested in hearing a solution to this problem. Lately, Nicole and I have spent more time at the independent theater than the standard theater. But, we’ve been watching mostly documentaries, so I don’t think it stands in opposition to the problem necessarily.

I’ve been working on my own RubyOnRails app for the past week: Freeloader. The idea is sort of like Delicious Library, except it’s web-based and it’s a form of folksonomy. Like Delicious Library, Freeloader will allow you to create a library of all the movies you own and it will track who you’ve lent those movies too and whether or not those movies are overdue. Unlike Delicious Library, friends who you’ve designated as contacts can browse your collection online and request to borrow any movie(s) they see of interest. Registered users can help ‘tag’ movies and rate/review movies or other users. i.e. “I recommend this movie if you like such and such” or “Scott sucks, he never returns my stuff on time”.

My immediate goal is to create a very narrow folksonomy, as in a private install with a private group of friends. The project is open and (much like Typo) your free to install your own version of it to help coordinate your circle of movie-borrowing friends.

I do have a test site setup that anyone can try out. I will nuke the database periodically, so don’t spend much time inputting your library. Right now, the only features that work are registering a new user, searching/adding new movies, adding any existing movie to your own collection, viewing your collection, viewing the collection of any user, and adding/removing ‘friends’. When I’m ready to start using the project regularly, the test site will become ‘invite-only’, though anyone is still free to browse the collections.

Freeloader Demo

If you want to try out the code for yourself, you can browse the source and see other project details at the Trac wiki and svn repository.

Freeloader - Trac

Freeloader - anonymous SVN

If you’d like to contribute anything to the project or need help installing what’s currently there, let me know.

Update - if the test site doesn’t seem to work (i.e. you get an Application Error), just hit refresh a couple of times. For some reason, my fcgi processes are having trouble staying alive on Dreamhost tonight.

There is a scene in Episode III where Obi-wan exclaims, “Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes”.

Guess what, asshat? That’s an absolute.

Modern film is riddled with bad philosophy. It just kills me when they state it so explicitly. It’s a slap in the face that I’m even sitting through this crap.

My overall impression of the film is that it had great effects, excellent fight scenes, and a good soundtrack. Much like the original Mortal Kombat movie… Also, like the original Mortal Kombat movie and Episodes I & II, the dialog was awful.

The new trailer for Serenity has got me pretty excited. Makes me wish I had enough free time to whip out that Firefly box set and watch all that goodness over again.

I have to agree with Tycho though… If you watch a sneak preview and spoil it for me, I will kill you.